The Draw Play

For a few months now I’ve been playfully jawing with a Vikings sportswriter on twitter (Arif Hasan, he’s good, you should read his stuff if you care about the Vikings) about making or not making a Vikings comic. He kept bugging me to make one. I actually wanted to, to be honest. The Vikings are one of the teams I’ve neglected over the past few years, and when there is no obvious comic material out there I usually try to pick a team I ignore and give it some love so people on reddit can call me an unfunny jerk because I mocked their team. So for months now I’ve been trying to come up with a Vikings comic, if only to give them some love and get Arif (who is the viking pictured here) to shut up. And I couldn’t do it, because the Vikings are the blandest, least interesting team I can possibly think of. How else can you explain the fact that they are currently 5-2 and are getting less media attention than basically every other team?

Every other team has interesting things about them that make them fun to follow. Some more than others obviously, but frankly every team seems to have something interesting going on. The Vikings don’t. Obviously Vikings fans are likely to disagree with me on that front because they are following the tiny minutiae more closely but from an outside fan perspective, even trying to find the Vikings interesting seems futile to the point where the only idea I can feasibly come up with is about how nobody cares. Teddy Bridgewater is progressing nicely, but he’s a boring QB. He’s got no personality, he’s got no quirks, no flair, and he’s not doing good enough or bad enough to really matter yet. The Defense is good, but not Denver good, or Seattle flashy, or Giants non-existent. Mike Zimmer was all sorts of hilariously blunt as a coordinator, but he never gives great soundbites anymore, or if he does nobody quotes him. About the only exciting thing going on right now is Stefon Diggs, who made the only interesting play of the season when he turned a Teddy overthrow into a beautiful lunging TD two weeks ago.

So the team is completely uneventful and straightforward. Part of the lack of caring might be that they haven’t beaten a meaningful team yet and all their games have been largely just sorta there. They got blown out week 1 against Toot’n Tomsula, then beat the Lions, Chargers, Chiefs, Bears, and Lions again with a loss to Denver tucked in the middle. They haven’t obliterated anybody, they haven’t made a statement game, they haven’t gotten obliterated and had a mental breakdown. They haven’t even had a wacky funtime clownball game. The Vikings are just sort of there. This week they take on the Rams, another good team that nobody is taking very seriously, but the Rams have this Todd Gurley fellow, which is getting them more attention.

It’s not over yet though. They’ve got more meaningful games coming, and if they can take one from Green Bay, Arizona, the Falcons or even Seattle they might get a little notice. Until then though, they shall wallow in the void of media blackout. Maybe the fans like it that way, I wouldn’t know. I’m used to rooting for a team that gets jammed in your face no matter how they do.

In unrelated news, Here are my Uproxx predictions and cartoons for the week!